1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to mobile multimedia systems used in vehicles and in particular, to a computing architecture for such system.
2. Related Art
Multimedia navigation systems have recently found a high use and demand as they conveniently combine telematic, navigation and entertainment functions for the driver and other passengers of vehicles. In present systems, customer requirements are satisfied by providing a hardware platform for realizing various functions and components, such as a radio, a compact disc (CD) or a digital video/versatile disc (DVD) player, a telematics module, a navigation unit, a television (TV) and/or an audio receiver. Enhanced systems provide professional sound combined with speech dialogue systems or other user interfaces to control the individual components and functions of the multimedia navigation system itself or other car body functions like climate control. In general, these systems may also include a data network comprised of a plurality of interconnected processors, sensors and databases to realize various vehicle operations, such as cruise control, automated mayday and obstacle/collision warning systems, among others.
Typically, such systems are custom built for vehicles by interfacing the individual products of many different manufacturers. Accordingly, once the requirements for a particular system are established, hardware and software must be located and procured to fulfill the requirements. In addition, compatibility and functionality issues among the various hardware and software components must be addressed to make the system fully functional. As such, the building of such a system requires significant system specific engineering and/or customization. Due to wide variations in requirements and ever changing improvements in hardware and software, such vehicle-specific highly customized systems are difficult to change or upgrade, and may not be applicable to the requirements of a different vehicle. Accordingly, each customized system requires similarly intensive and relatively inefficient design and engineering efforts to design and/or upgrade the system.